Hadrian Blackwater is already a veteran at a young age. Returning home after the death of his father, he's disillusioned with soldiering and not sure what to do next. Luckily, Professor Arcadius, a friend of his father's, has an idea: team up with surly murderer Royce Melborn to commit crimes. The first in a series of prequels to Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series adds nothing to Royce and Hadrian's stories. Hadrian spends over 100 pages wandering the countryside, meeting an adorable orphan named Pickles and traveling on a barge before he is finally introduced to Royce. Meanwhile, Royce's future love interest, Gwen, spends the entire book building a brothel, completely separate from the plot. When Hadrian does meet Royce, he turns out to be a sulky figure who wants to murder anyone who gets in his way, lacking all of his future warmth and personality. A disappointing outing from a good author, this prequel is of interest only for the most devoted Riyria fans. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Hadrian Blackwater, a fighter who claims to be done with violence, meets Royce Melborn, an assassin hired by an unknown party to protect Hadrian and to whom the warrior takes an almost instant dislike. When a boy is executed for a crime Royce has committed, Hadrian's dislike becomes hatred-until the enemies are forced to work together to commit a seemingly impossible burglary at the behest of an old wizard. The author of the Riyria Revelations (Theft of Swords; Rise of Empire; Heir of Novron), which chronicle the adventures of Blackwater and Melborn as an established pair, sets his latest series opener 12 years earlier, describing the initial meeting between the two antiheroes. Sullivan's characters are reminiscent of other sword and sorcery (or sword and sword) pairings: Michael Moorcock's Elric and Moonglum, Frtiz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Mercedes Lackey's Tarma and Kethry. VERDICT Fans of the original Riyria series should enjoy this return to familiar characters and places. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.